{{Our episode title is also a song from the musical The King and I.—tmw.}}
"So, what do you kids want to be when you grow up?" Betty Timid, Huck Jenkins' fiance asked, wanting to break the ice with some of her future in-laws and get to know them better while making them feel more at home in Moon Lake.
"Truthfully?" asked John Harper, while turning to look at her. "I honestly don't know," he admitted. "On one hand, while I still don't want the guy to die from his heart attack, I'm glad dad's out of the picture for a while. Otherwise, he'd be telling me what he wants me to be. Yet Freshman year in high school is all required courses. You don't get to start choosing electives toward what your future plans are until you're a Sophomore."
"I see," said Betty, realizing that even what little she had heard about James Harper Senior of Alabama barely scratched the surface of how much a jerk he was. "Well then, do you have any hobbies or other interests? There's a saying that it's best to do what you love and love what you're doing in regards to a job."
"Well..." John said, a bit hesitantly. "I love art. Drawing, painting. All that stuff. But except for the practical side of painting like interior walls and outside structures, dad would say that's sissy stuff, so I've kept quiet about it."
"If it helps, I could use a painting assistant once I'm back on my feet," said Huck, knowing that even as a weredog, it would still be a day or two before he could fully resume work at his construction business again. "I'll definitely need someone to help me paint your sister Jennifer's new apartment once I get that far on the project. Maybe when you're not helping me do that, you can paint what you want and perhaps I can offer it to some of my construction clients for decorations."
"Really?" John asked in disbelief.
"Sure. Why not?" said Huck.
"Thank you sir."
"It's Huck, remember?"
"Okay."
"I bet a big handsome young man like you has all the ladies swooning for you. Any girlfriends?" asked Betty.
"I... That is..." began John, as his face started to turn red in embarrassment. "There is someone I like back in Alabama, but I have absolutely no idea how they feel about me. Besides, maybe that's for the best. Besides how dad would react if he found out who I was interested in, I'll be starting all over here in Moon Lake once this emancipation process take effect."
"Well, when we get to the painting part of your sister's apartment, it will be just us guys, so even if you want to before then, if you ever want somebody to talk to, man to man..." offered Huck.
"Thanks."
"I've got a question," said John's younger sister Janice, while holding up her hand.
"What is it?" asked Huck.
"Does it hurt?"
"Does what hurt?" Huck asked in return, but thought he knew what her next question would be.
"Changing," replied Janice, confirming Huck's suspicion.
"I'll be honest with you. Only the very first time, because it's something brand new and different that your body has to adjust to. After that, going back and forth between your were form and your normal human appearance is just as easy as breathing, although some weres do complain that when they return to their normal form, it's like saying goodbye to an old and dear friend."
"I've wanted to be a mermaid ever since I saw that movie at a friend's house, although dad would of gotten very angry with me for having unpure thoughts if he found out," began Janice. "Yet, since I've heard they actually do exist–"
"Moon Lake's Mayor and his family are all were-mers," said Betty, accidentally interrupting her.
"Really?" said Janice with a huge smile on her face. "Anyway, since I found out that they do exist, I've been thinking about becoming a mermaid, although Jenny says I have to wait until after I turn 14 to become a were anything," complained Janice.
"That's true," confirmed Huck.
"But how will I know what kind of mermaid I'll be before I become one?" wondered Janice.
"Unfortunately, you won't," answered Betty. "In my case, once I marry Huck," she said, leaning a little closer to her fiance while lovingly squeezing his paw, "I'll become a weredog too. I just don't know what kind of breed of weredog I'll become when it happens," she added, skipping the part about it happening on their wedding night once they had sex together for the first time.
"So when I get to become a were-mermaid..." said Janice.
"From what I know of them, you'll be able to breathe, see, speak, and hear as well underwater as you do on dry land, and still be able to change back and forth between how you are now and the other you you'll become. The only question on the were-mer front will be what color your scales are when that happens."
"Then how did you wind up a Pomeranian?" wondered John.
"Luck of the draw? Pure chance? Nobody knows for sure just exactly how that works out," admitted Huck. "With some species, it's just a question of the minor details like scale or fur coloring. With others, there's a lot more variables in play."
"Say... Once you're an official Moon Lake resident, since you're already 14, you could become a were if you wanted to John," realized Betty.
"Would I have to?" asked John in return.
"Despite the fact she was changed by accident," began Betty, trying to downplay the situation with the rogue werevixen, "your sister Jennifer already qualifies as the Harper family were under the town's Mandatory Were Law. So you don't have to if you don't want to."
"It's nothing against weres. From what little I've seen so far, you're the nicest people I've ever met," said John. "It's just that even if I ever do decide to become a were, I have absolutely no idea what kind of were I'd want to be."
Besides, thought John, I'm not sure who or what I am as it is.
MEANWHILE...
Elizabeth Harper had sat in the lone chair of her husband's room within the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of Moon Lake General Hospital for hours now. Her only companionship since disowning her children under James Harper Senior's orders were the steady but light breathing of her sleeping husband, accompanied by the constant but somewhat mute noises of the equipment monitoring his medical condition and the occasional visit by someone on duty to check on both him and her.
At least, those were the PUBLIC things keeping her company.
What everyone surmised but no one could imagine the exact nature of, was the thoughts going through her mind.
All those years... realized Elizabeth Harper, staring at her unconscious mate. You seemed so young and vital when we first met, she recalled. But by the time I got my first suspicions of what kind of man you truly were, it was already too late. You were already brow beating me. Telling me what to do and how things were going to be. YOUR way or else, remembered Elizabeth, as the knuckles of her clenched fists started turning white as her short fingernails began to dig into the palms of her hands.
I had a promising business career before you got me pregnant with James Junior. Then you made me drop out of college to have him and even more kids while you finished school and went on with life professionally. Yet look where that got you!
Dieter Wilhelm. You're second coming.
"Whatever happened to Thou shall have no gods before me?" she asked aloud, but got no answer.
Wilhelm the 'wonder boy'. So many hopes pinned on to his false promises of leading us, or at least you, to bigger and better things. All in exchange for Jennifer's hand in marriage.
Elizabeth Harper stared harder at her husband. The anger building within her.
I knew that guy would be trouble the first moment I met him at that company picnic. But did you listen to me? NO! You always know best. And the way Wilhelm looked at Jenny when he first saw her. Our daughter was only 15 at the time. 15!
"What am I going to do now?" she asked aloud, although no one else was within the room with her.
"What are we going to do?" Elizabeth Harper demanded to know, but her husband still slept.
I'm nothing but a very tired and dried up old hag now. A woman whose best years have long since deserted her, she realized.
"Because of you," she cursed under her breath.
Even if you can ever go back to work, you'll never be able to do what you used to or earn what you did in the past. That is, with your precious Dieter Wilhelm in jail and facing serious charges for wanting to kill Jenny's fiance and have her all to himself, if there is even still a job at the electric plant for you to go back to once a doctor gives you the okay. There's no guarantee any new management will keep you on because of your new medical status, and if Wilhelm somehow remains in charge of the place...
She shuddered in a bit of fear as her anger started becoming rage.
Even if you'd let me do that sewing work, the two of us together might not earn enough to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and the bills paid. Especially since you decided to disown our children. At least they might have been some help, no matter how they actually feel about you.
Sure, Junior might wind up marrying someone we don't like. We don't even truly know this Jenkins guy Jenny just got hitched to. He might actually be a very good man, but because Jenny was going against your wishes and marrying someone other than Dieter Wilhelm...
Then, unable to hold them back any longer, Elizabeth Harper started crying.
"Because of you..." she said aloud, staring at her husband. "Even if neither of us would have approved of their mates, because of you I might never be able to see any of my grandchildren that will come into this world..."
Sadness. Despair. Loneliness. Worry. Fear.
All these and more were going through her heart and mind.
Her vision was nothing but a blur of tears now as Elizabeth Harper cried, "All... b-because... of... you..."
Moon Lake General Hospital was quiet that night.
The staff on duty was prepared in case some Trick or Treat prank or Halloween antic went wrong and somebody—were or normal human being—required emergency treatment.
They were all highly trained and dedicated, so rushed into action the moment the automatic alarms from the monitoring equipment rang out.
"CODE BLUE! CARDIAC ICU! CODE BLUE! CARDIAC ICU!"
To be continued...